Fixes
by cg2006
Summary: Naruto Uzumaki, an eight year old little boy, learns with Iruka sensei that sometimes things can't be so easily fixed. Short four part drabbles.
1. Lesson 1

Summary: Naruto Uzumaki, an eight year old little boy, learns along side Iruka sensei in his everyday life about things that can be fixed, and things that cannot.

Lesson 1

Naruto is studying at Iruka sensei's house. He is studying about charka flow and how it is used in a jutsu. It was confusing to the young boy, so Naruto had went and asked Iruka sensei for help, but Iruka was the teacher after all, so Iruka said no, and to study harder and try to understand as much as he could. Naruto pouted and sat back down at the table, while Iruka cooked dinner and half-supervised Naruto's studying. Iruka was currently chopping vegetables for the boiling water and was busy. Naruto took it as an opportunity to sneak away for a while, so he laid down his brush and tiptoed to the bathroom to read his new manga volume that came out earlier that week. Unfortunately, Iruka sensei had noticed a little too soon for Naruto's liking.

"Naruto! Get back here and study! Now!" his sensei shouted.

Naruto frowned and came out of the bathroom to face an annoyed Iruka sensei who had a big soupspoon in his hand.

"I was in the bathroom, Iruka sensei!" was the excuse. Iruka sensei snorted.

"For the third time in less than thirty minutes? I don't think so! Study!" Iruka sensei grabbed a hold of Naruto's ear and dragged him all the way back to the table, with Naruto protesting and whining. Naruto sulked and glared at Iruka sensei, who was busy stirring the pot and ignoring Naruto's glares.

"Hey, where's my brush?" Naruto wondered, as he sat down. "I put it down on the table just a little wh—"

Snap!

"Ah…ano…Iruka sensei…?" A pink tinge spread across the young ninja in training's face.

"What now, Naruto?" Iruka grumbled.

"Um…the brush…I kind of… sat on it…"

"NANI?!!" What?!

Naruto was almost positive there was smoke coming out of his teacher's ears. Oh, wait, it was just the steam from the boiling soup. Iruka sighed and set down the spoon on a small dish next to the burner.

"Let me see it," he said, holding out his hand. Naruto gave him the pieces. Iruka laughed.

"Ah, you're lucky Naruto kun. It only broke in two!" He tousled his guest's blond locks.

"Be more careful okay? Next time you might not be so lucky! If you broke it completely, you're paying it with your own ramen money."

"Nani?! No way!"

Iruka laughed again. "Then go get the glue. We'll fix it and you can continue studying, okay?"

"Hai!" was the enthusiastic reply.

"…um, Naruto kun. Aren't you going to get the glue?"

"Erm, where is it?"


	2. Lesson 2

Summary: Naruto Uzumaki, an eight year old little boy, learns along side Iruka sensei in his everyday life about things that can be fixed, and things that cannot.

Lesson 2

It was late morning, a few hours before lunch time. The sky was clear and blue. The sun bathed Konohagakure and its villagers in pleasantly warm light. The air was warm and just right; not too humid and not too dry. Perfect weather for walking and playing outside. The children were all attending class at the Ninja Academy, though. Most of them anyway.

"Nyah! You can't catch me!" a particular boy not in class declared through a mouthful of food. He was holding a can of paint and had an orange jacket tied around his waist. Behind him Iruka sensei and a couple other men gave chase.

"Naruto! Come back to class now!"

"Brat! Give me back that paint you didn't pay for!'

"Hey, you stole my fish you didn't pay for!"

"Your _fish_?!"

The men started to catch up to the boy not in class, but the boy didn't slow down at all. In fact, he went faster.

"You won't be able to catch me!" he shouted gleefully. "I'm running so fast, I'm just a yellow flash to you guys! Ha!"

There was much more yelling heard after that. The four males ran all through the day market, around the Hokage's office, and up the Hokage mountain, where the yellow haired not in class boy leaped up and grabbed a hold of the rope that was dangling by the side.

"Haha! Thanks for the paint, old man! Now I can finish my art!" he yelled down to them, as he climbed up the rope. He slapped some bright red paint onto the stone face of the Fourth. A small crowd had formed at the base of the monument, consisting of Iruka sensei, the two shopkeepers, random other villagers who happened to be at the market, and Iruka sensei's ninjas in training. The random villagers shouted at the little troublemaker.

"Hey, stop vandalizing the monument!"

"Pay some respect!"

"You brat, you'll pay for that!"

"Baka! What do you think you're doing?"

Naruto ignored them and continued decorating the large face. Iruka sensei started to climb up.

"Naruto if you don't get down now, I will not treat you to ramen for two weeks!"

Naruto painted a very rude word across the Fourth's forehead. The villagers below yelled in outrage.

"Naruto! What if the rope were to break?"

"Mah, Iruka sensei! Stop worrying, it won't break!" Naruto assured. Right after he said that there was a quiet snapping sound, heard only be Naruto and Iruka sensei. Naruto stopped painting and glanced upward.

"Oh crap."

Naruto was literally hanging by only a few threads; the rest of the rope was frayed around the remaining whole threads. The next event seemed to happen in slow motion. Naruto's back was to the ground, instead of Konoha. Invisible arms dramatically dragged him down. Iruka sensei's eyes went as wide as the Fourth's. The can of paint tipped upside down as invisible arms also pulled it downward, and paint sloshed onto Iruka sensei and the shopkeepers, but mostly Iruka sensei. The children gasped. Suddenly the blonde was reacquainted with the dirt ground with a loud thud and a crack.

"Itai…" he groaned in pain.

Iruka sensei wiped paint from his eyes and mouth and rushed to his troublemaker student.

"Naruto! Are you okay? Did you break anything? Speak to me!"

The blond boy clutched his right arm and mumbled weakly, "You jinxed me, Iruka sensei…"

"Oh never mind that!" the teacher snapped. "Let's get you fixed up at the hospital now!"

A cast was placed on Naruto's arm, keeping him mostly out of trouble. Surprisingly, in just a few weeks it was all fixed and completely good as new and Naruto was back to vandalizing.

This was an idea I had quite a while ago and only just decided to dig it out and rework it. Hehe.

There will be two more chapters, and they'll be longer than these first two. The third one definitely will be, anyway. I'll post them tomorrow, hopefully, but in the meantime, reviews would be nice. I'd like to know what you think of it so far!


	3. Lesson 3

Lesson 3 

It was another nice sunny day in Konoha, and this time it was afternoon. This time there warn't (1) no little punk running around vandalizing the respectable monument. This time, the teacher and the little punk were getting ready to go for a walk. The teacher was under the doorway and the punk was outside the doorway.

"Hurry up, Iruka sensei!!" Naruto shouted as he literally bounced around in small circles. Iruka sensei laughed.

"You have so much energy! Where do you get it all from?"

"I dunno!! But let's go NOW!" Naruto grabbed Iruka sensei's hand and tried to run off, but Iruka held him back.

"We're going on a walk, Naruto kun, not a sprint." Iruka sensei stopped and pondered. "Now if only you had this much energy when you're studying…eh, Naruto?" The young boy looked down sheepishly.

"Mah, whatever. Come on!!"

They followed the path leading away from the apartment buildings and towards the park, purposely not going in the direction of the Ichiraku Ramen shop. At the park, Naruto and Iruka sensei waved to the kids. They went to the training grounds, and Iruka pulled out a kunai for Naruto to throw at one of the targets.

"Good ninjas must learn to have very precise aim. Give it a try!"

The kunai hit the wood with a thunk, but it didn't exactly hit the right spot. The ninja in training grumbled. His teacher took out another knife and showed his student how to throw it correctly and in the dead center. The third kunai was for Naruto to try again. This time, it did hit the center. The ninja in training gave a loud, excited whoop.

"Just wait till I get better than you, Iruka sensei! Wait till I get my headband when I graduate!"

"Don't get so high and mighty, Naruto!" Iruka sensei chuckled.

They continued walking through the training fields and then to the woods. The hyper little blond accidentally tripped over a tree root and did a face plant into the mud. Iruka sensei couldn't help but burst out laughing. Naruto pouted.

"Iruka sensei, it's not funny!" He threw a bit of mud at his teacher.

Farther into the woods, there was a creek. Iruka sensei sat down on the cool grass and told Naruto to wash off the mud on his face. After splashing a bit of the fresh water onto his muddy face, Naruto plopped down beside Iruka sensei.

"Hey, Iruka sensei?"

"Hm?"

"…I'm gonna pass the test right? I'll pass it and I'll get to be a ninja like you, right?"

"Of course, Naruto. Of course you will pass the test. Do you doubt that you will?"

Naruto hesitated. "Well, it's just that… I'm not as strong as everyone else. They're all better than me! I don't think I'll ever be as good as them!"

Iruka sensei smiled. "Naruto, you can be just as strong as all of them. If you work hard enough, you might even be able to be stronger than all of them!"

Naruto thought this over very carefully.

"Iruka sensei?"

"Hm?"

"I know what I'm gonna be when I grow up now."

Iruka sensei was puzzled.

"Weren't you going to be a ninja?"

"Yeah! But I wanna be better than just a ninja." The boy stood up. "I wanna be… Hokage!"

"That's a big goal, Naruto," Iruka said.

"Yeah, but I know I'm gonna be Hokage. I'm gonna be the greatest one there ever was!"

Iruka sensei smiled. He was proud of Naruto. Proud of him as if he were his own son. Naruto turned around and said to Iruka sensei, "Come on! Let's finish our walk!" He held out a hand to help Iruka sensei up.

They walked along the edge of the creek, though not too close so they wouldn't fall in, in which Naruto almost did.

"Ne, Iruka sensei! What's that?" The boy pointed at something lying on the grass ahead of them. They both approached it and saw it was a swallow.

"Iruka sensei! It's hurt!" Naruto exclaimed. He reached out, but Iruka held him back, going forward to pick it up himself.

"Its wing is broken. You must be careful." Iruka brought it eyelevel to Naruto, who gazed at it in sorrow.

"What do we do Iruka sensei? What do we do? It has to get better!" Iruka silently agreed, for he was a big fan of nature, but he wasn't quite sure what exactly to do with it.

"Hey!" Naruto suddenly exclaimed. "I know! We can take it to my house and I'll keep it till it gets better!"

Iruka hesitated to agree. "Um…I'm not sure that's a good idea, Naruto."

"Why? It can't just stay out here! What if a cat comes and eats it?" The boy's big blue eyes began to water.

"How about we take it to my house and treat it, okay?" Iruka bargained.

Naruto gave it some thought and then said, "Okay."

They walked back to Iruka's apartment where Iruka broke a chopstick in half and tied it to the swallow's wing with bandages as a brace.

"There, that will hold the bird's wing right until it heals and fixes itself in time," Iruka explained. Naruto grinned happily.

"Yay! Tsubame (swallow) chan, you'll get better real fast now!"

The little swallow lifted its head up and chirped a few times.

"Tsubame chan says 'thank you', Iruka sensei!" Naruto exclaimed.

In a few weeks time, the swallow's wing had completely healed. Naruto was reluctant to let it go back into the wild, but Iruka told him that it was Tsubame chan's home, and that Tsubame needed to go back to its own home. Naruto put the swallow on the window sill where it flapped its wings a few times and flew out into the sky.

"Bye Tsubame chan!!" Naruto called after it. The swallow chirped back in reply.

(1) Haha, we're reading Huckleberry Finn in one of my classes and Mark Twain uses "warn't" a lot, so I decided to try it. Yeah!

One more chapter! Hm...this does seem like there is no point in this story, doesn't it? Well, I think it sort of does... One more chapter to go! And it'll be kind of sad. I'll try to make it kind of sad. And fluffy. :3


	4. Lesson 4

Lesson 4 

"Huff huff huff!" the little 8 year old blond panted as he ran to the Ninja Academy. "I can't be late again, or else Iruka sensei's gonna skin me alive!" He threw open the doors and dashed down the hallways, then suddenly skidded to a stop in front of one door. He pulled it open with a loud clack and shouted "Iruka sensei I am NOT late!!!" Some of the kids in the classroom glanced up but went back to talking with their friends. There was no teacher scolding Naruto immediately for being late though.

"Where's Iruka sensei?" Naruto wondered aloud as his blue eyes scanned the room for his favorite teacher. He found Iruka sensei bent over in front of someone, talking quietly with a serious face. That someone was another little boy who had black hair and wore a dark blue shirt and white shorts. He nodded occasionally to Iruka sensei, but wasn't really looking directly at him. Naruto smirked, and thought, He probably got in trouble.

Naruto quickly skipped to his seat, but not before stopping to say hi to a little girl with light pink hair, and sat there looking like he had been sitting there the whole time. He glanced at Iruka sensei again. Iruka sensei was standing up straight now, and was leaving the other boy.

"Uzumaki Naruto! Another tardy?! You're staying after school today!"

"Aww," Naruto pouted. "But Iruka sensei, I was sitting here the whole time!"

"Liar!" shouted a couple of other kids around Naruto.

"Don't lie Naruto. I know you weren't in here before. It was too quiet!" The rest of the class giggled. Naruto pouted.

"But Iruka sensei!!!" .

"No buts!" Iruka sensei snapped. The class giggled again. Iruka sensei quickly took attendance and then began to teach the young ninjas in training. Throughout the morning, Naruto had noticed that Iruka sensei kept casting quick glances at the black haired boy. What was his name…? Naruto racked his brain for a name. Hm…oh yeah, Sasuke!

Later, the class went outside to eat lunch. Everyone spread out and sat outside on the small training field in little groups with their friends, chatting and eating happily. Naruto usually ate lunch with Iruka sensei, but he couldn't find him outside. The blond boy asked a random classmate if they had seen Iruka sensei. They said Iruka sensei was still inside the classroom. So Naruto went inside to search for his teacher/lunch companion. He found Iruka sensei inside his classroom, sitting on a desk and talking to Sasuke again. He didn't hear what Iruka sensei had said, but he had heard Sasuke say quietly, "Leave me alone" and the black haired boy walked to the doorway, where Naruto was. The blond boy ambushed him, holding his arms out to block Sasuke's way out.

"Hey, who do you think you are, talking to Iruka sensei like that?!" he said angrily. But Sasuke only looked at Naruto with a hard glare, and ducked under his arms, walking out. This only made Naruto madder.

"Hey you!"

"Naruto, don't bother him."

Naruto turned around at the unexpectedly quiet voice coming from Iruka sensei, who was sitting on a desk with his head bent low.

"Huh?"

"Don't bother him," Iruka sensei repeated.

"But he--?"

The teacher motioned for Naruto to come closer, which he did.

"Yeah, what? What crawled up his butt and died?" Naruto said rudely, still pissed. He puffed out his cheeks.

Iruka sighed heavily and said, "His parents died." The blond's cheeks deflated and he blinked those big blue eyes of his.

"He…his what?"

"His parents… they died yesterday. Not just his parents, his whole clan. The Uchiha clan, all dead."

"…Oh," was all Naruto could say.

"I…I wanted to make sure Sasuke would be okay," Iruka sensei said. His voice was thick. "I wanted to make sure he'd be okay at school today…it's…it's very hard, when your parents are suddenly dead…hard to believe that they really are gone."

Naruto stood there, watching his teacher, not saying a word. He watched his teacher's shoulders tremble a little. He watched his teacher lift up his head and look at Naruto with tears slowly streaming down his face.

"I remember…when my own parents died…I felt…completely heartbroken. Mother and Father were my only family left…and then I was left all alone… when they died to fight for the village. Sasuke…must be feeling the same way…"

Naruto looked down, away from Iruka sensei's teary eyed gaze. He never grew up with parents, so the pain he had experienced wasn't the same as Iruka sensei's and Sasuke's.

"Heartbroken…" he said softly as he looked up again. "Broken…if it's broken…we can fix it then, can't we… Iruka sensei?"

"Naruto…sometimes…things can't be fixed as easily… That brush, your arm, the bird's wing…they all could be fixed easily, but a human heart… it just isn't that simple, Naruto. It won't heal in just a few weeks, especially if it's been hurt enough." Iruka sensei sniffed and wiped his eyes as he got off the desk to his own table, where he pulled out a boxed lunch.

"Here you go, Naruto. Go on, enjoy your lunch," he said, handing the boxed lunch to his student. Naruto took it, and walked out of the room. As he walked down the halls, he thought very carefully about what Iruka sensei had said.

_I felt…completely heartbroken. Sasuke…must be feeling the same way._

_Sometimes… things can't be fixed as easily…A human heart… it isn't that simple… It won't heal in just a few weeks, especially if it's been hurt enough._

Naruto reached the doorway leading to the training field. He looked out at everyone sitting together and eating. He spotted a lone boy sitting under a tree with a lunch box, but not eating.

"Well, I'm gonna help it heal faster."

* * *

Theme song for mood setter: Sadness and Sorrow (toshiro masuda) 

Yes, well, this is the last chapter! This was going to be the real... "point" in this four part story. A heart can't be healed as easily as other things or body parts...

Sigh... it's a night for angsty ness and fluff...sort of. okay, this WASN'T all that fluffy.. or like, full blown ANGST, but it was sad, right? Right?!! sigh.. tis indeed a night of sadness and sorrow.. I dunno. I might end up rewriting this chapter...


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